The present invention relates to a method of fabricating electronic chips, and more particularly, digital memory cards.
Electronic devices (e.g., computer) may contain many different types of electronic components such as memory cards and processors to name a few which are assembled together to build the electronic device. In the assembly of the electronic device, these electronic components may be received by an assembler. The assembler may begin to assemble the electronic device by attaching a first electronic component to an electronic board. Unfortunately, during the process of attaching the first electronic component to the electronic board, situations may arise that may harm the first electronic component. For example, the first electronic component may be soldered to the electronic board wherein the soldering process exposes the first electronic component to excessive heat thereby damaging the first electronic component. Despite the damaged first electronic component, the assembler may continue to attach second and third electronic components to the electronic board with the assumption that the first electronic component is still fully functional. However, at the end of the assembly process, the assembler may discover that the electronic device does not function as designed due to the damaged first electronic component. The assembler must then begin to debug the electronic device to locate and repair the damaged first electronic component at great expense and time.
Likewise, the manufacturer of the electronic component may encounter a similar type of problem when manufacturing or fabricating the electronic component. For example, in memory card fabrication, the memory card may comprise a plurality of electrical parts. For example, the memory card may include a memory integrated circuit, a lead frame, and a controller integrated circuit. These electrical parts may be electrically connected to each other and encapsulated within a molded shell. Unfortunately, the molding processes may harm the controller integrated circuit and/or the memory integrated circuit thereby preventing the memory card from functioning properly after molding. If the molding process damaged both electrical parts, then both electrical parts are rejected. Alternatively, if only one of the electrical parts was damaged by the molding process, both the defective and the non-defective electrical part must be discarded thereby wasting not only the defective electrical part but also the non-defective electrical part.
In certain instances, the electrical parts may be removed from the molded shell to salvage the non-defective part. Nonetheless, when either one of the electrical parts become defective due to the molding process, then the repair technician must consume time and energy to remove the defective electrical part, to repair the electrical part or to salvage the non-defective electrical part.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for an improved method of fabricating an electronic component such as a memory card.